This versus that

In recent posts, I have documented the negative effects of both unfettered capitalism and fundamentalist religiosity. However several questions immediately spring to mind in the face of this data. While the US is hampered by social problems of far greater magnitude than similarly advanced democracies in Europe, one also cannot escape the fact that innovation in science and technology is also much more common in America. Is there something about either the religiosity or economics of this country that account for this? More people suffer in the US, yet we also see constant advances that lead to things like, well, the ability to transmit this dialogue globally and instantly via the internet. So there seems to be a tradeoff between social stability and emotional and economic security with so-called progress. It is very likely that both factors of religion and economics do indeed play a role in this.

On one hand, many Americans believe it is their manifest destiny to be great and rule the world. This certainly drives many to accomplish the new and different rather than be satisfied with the more mundane comforts of life. And the economics of the US also mean that if one does not strive to succeed in every way imaginable, you have a very high likelihood of living a miserable life of debt, poor health and violence. But is there some point of moderation where the best of both worlds can be had. I am reminded of one of President Clinton's mantras. He often said that if you worked hard and played by the rules, you deserved a good life. In other words, he opposed a social safety net to protect ne'er do wells, but insisted that those who tried their best not end up on the street. And of course, those were boom times for America. Many leftists like to deride Clinton as a republican lite, but perhaps he really had it right all along. Moderation in everything is really the key. Neither laissez faire nor socialism can achieve the twin goals of peace and prosperity, so it must be something in between.

As for religiosity, this must be distinguished from spirituality. To have a sense of awe at the universe and even to believe in a higher power is probably hard wired into the human brain. It serves an important purpose in bonding members of a tribe to something greater and likely played an important role in human evolution. However we are now a global world and the evolutionary advantage of belief within small isolated tribes has been transformed into endless war over dogma between nation-states. Whether one believes in the transcendent reality of spirit or not, it is clear that dogmatic and fundamentalist belief systems only cause harm when they are used to try and control those of differing views in pluralistic world. There is also considerable evidence that human consciousness can be altered by prayer and meditation in positive ways. It is only when these acts of faith or practice are controlled by a hierarchical priesthood that spirituality degenerates into the tyranny and demagoguery of religiosity. It must be understood that a secular world is not a world without a place for spirituality. It is world where that is a private matter and we can come together in the public square on the only common ground we all have, which is allegiance to shared civil values. It is these shared civil values that ended centuries of religious based war in western europe. It is time the rest of the world heeds this lesson of history or we are doomed to repeat the horrors endlessly.

stem cells increased by hyperbaric oxygen

A natural way to increase stem cells

And a Happy New Year

Here are several different perspectives on religion, spirituality and mental health, ranging from personal to societal to historical, as evidenced in this cross-cultural study. E.O. Wilson provides the take of a biologist in this essay on Intelligent Evolution. One question we all must contend with when considering whether secularism or religion are either detrimental or beneficial to a modern global society (as opposed to an isolated premodern tribal society) is the way in which people are treated in such societies. A glance around the world suggests that religious cultures constantly war with each other and secular ones live in relative peace both within and without. Note the relatively low rates of violence and absence of war in western Europe since it secularized, relative compared to Europe of old and the US and middle east of today.

Many might point to the immense bloodshed in the communist regimes of the 20th century, such as China and the old Soviet Union. However, those countries were not (and are still not) secular democracies. And many are unaware that Hitler's war was most certainly driven in part by religious ideology. Hitler was a pagan mystic and one of his gifts to mankind was the partial destruction of the founders of modern monotheism, the Jews, who were ironically a highly secular culture in Germany of that era, much as they are today in both Israel and the US. Even Japan was a highly religious country prior to world war 2 and is perhaps the most secular, least violent and most long-lived country in the modern age.

The more religious a modern democratic country is, the higher its rates of homicide, infant mortality, sexually transmitted disease, mass murder (like school shootings). Perhaps most telling and ironic of all the data is that abortion and teen pregnancy are both much higher in religious democracies than secular ones. In addition, shorter lifespan and generally poorer physical and mental health correlates with increasing religiosity. So within the US, such statistics are usually associated with the perils of secularism, but when compared cross-culturally, it appears that religion may be actually be the true cause.

Let's face facts. People kill each other over religion, both within and between countries. The religious hold irrational views which impact their mental health severely when confronted with differing views and lifestyles. The extremely religious often reject scientific ideas which may lead them to be ignorant of facts that would protect their physical health. This ranges from complete rejection of medicine by christian scientists, rejection of parts like the central role of microbes in illness by many new agers to the teaching of abstinence rather than the use of condoms, a primary factor in the spread of STDs since it is not actually possible to restrain the natural desire for sex in a free society. It almost goes without saying that that the most secular countries have the least poverty, homelessness, and disparity between the rich and poor as well as greater access to healthcare and other necessary services.

If you break up the data within the US, the only highly religious country amongst the modern democracies, the trend becomes even more glaring. According to the cross-cultural study from which this data is culled, "the strongly theistic, anti-evolution south and mid-west having markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the northeast where societal conditions, secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms (Aral and Holmes; Beeghley, Doyle, 2002)." Despite the ongoing controversy and culture wars in the US, evidence suggests the population as a whole is actually becoming more secular and thus may someday reap the rewards of this trend seen in most of western Europe, particularly with regard to decreasing violence. Its time to wake up, consider the facts and stop just listening to the rhetoric.

Merry Christmas?

Something is very wrong with America. Our economy is sick and it may never recover. You have to wonder when the party is going to end. Now that home ownership is at its highest levels ever, it means that Americans who mortgaged their entire existence for a piece of this pie are the greatest risk ever of losing it all when it comes crashing down. I am a struggling homeowner myself, so I hope for the best, yet fear for the worst after reading a new report called Middle-Class Turmoil. Most of these factoids won't be news to many of you.

Americans continue to have a negative savings rate, with their credit cards maxed out.

Many homebuyers with interest free ARM loans are struggling to make payments as the loans adjust to much higher interest.

Salaries are stagnant or falling for many poor and middle class.

The Arizona Republic underscores this a recent article entitled Home loans catch up to consumers. Homeowners have cashed out their equity just to keep up and it now its time to pay the piper. Our so-called economic recovery, much weaker than previous recoveries, is actually just a ticking time bomb. The article also reports that houses are selling slowly in major markets like Phoenix. Same is true in San Diego, where I can't unload mine or even rent it.

The Kansas City Star reports More evidence of housing slowdown, with even a drop in the median home sales price.

Defaults and foreclosures likely; they are already at the highest rate in 30 years

At the same time, there reduced bankruptcy options due to new laws, yet even so the rate is higher than ever.

There has also been a decline in healthcare and retirement benefits.

While unemployment is technically down, long term unemployment at its highest rates ever; in addition, many new jobs are likely to pay less than the ones that were lost. The only reason the overall rate has technically dropped is because many folks have been out of jobs for so long they no longer qualify for benefits. Educated white folks are doing way better than other demographics, unless you are one of those stupid idealistic white guys like me who wasted his entire adult life pursuing a pipe dream instead of climbing the corporate ladder.

On top of all this, we have sharply rising energy costs to contend with, which will only further pinch the middle class budget. 2006 could turn out be the year when the s**t finally hits the fan.

There must be something really wrong with an economy where most small businesses would fail except for christmas shopping. In other words, we would already be a third world ghetto except that credit card companies continue to flip you enough bucks to just barely turn it around once a year. What is the plan? The powers that be know this cannot go on forever. But perhaps the 300 million middle class American consumers could be replaced with 4 billion dirt poor third world consumers. So even if America fails, the rich multinationalists will still be laughing all the way to the bank.

Today we learn that many of the richest rich are not paying taxes at all.

Here's a christmas treat reported from a Texas newspaper that right on the heels of cuts in student loans that the current funding is already falling far short. With college prices at all time highs, many cannot afford to go, relegating them to a lifetime of low wages, while other are left saddled with so much debt, they are still living like paupers well into their 40's. I fall into the latter group myself.

Everyone knows that government debt and deficits are at record levels even though Clinton left us with a balanced budget and the largest surplus in American history. But we are at war, which justifies all costs. Oops. Except that the money we are spending in Iraq has nothing to do with protecting us against terrorism. What good will democracy in the middle east be if it dies here in the US. As for that so-called democracy, today an Iraqi court invalidated the election of most of the sunni candidates who won parliamentary seats, further consolidating their unholy theocracy with its close ties to our best buddy in the sand, Iran.

All this can only lead to a dramatic decrease in consumer buying with the debt ridden government powerless to help. Is this just a blip or something worse. So have a Merry Christmas or should I say Happy Holidays. Like it friggin' matters at this point.

SSRIs grow new nerve fibers

From the Betterhumans blog,

Reporting in the Journal of Neurochemistry, researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found in rats that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) increase the density of nerve-impulse-carrying axons in the frontal and parietal lobes of the neocortex and part of the limbic brain.

I would assume that if the SSRIs grow new nerve fibers, that new growth would be relatively long lasting or even permanent. Yet quite a few people seem to become dependent on these drugs and regress into their depressive states rapidly upon discontinuation. This suggests that some etiological factors are left unaddressed by the treatment. For example, if a dietary deficiency or environmental toxin is responsible for the depression, the drug may overcome these factors, but then when stopped, the factors gradually do their damage again. Of course, many patients have had complete cures after 6 months on these drugs with no remission after stopping. It also raises the issue of whether some type of psychological intervention such as cognitive therapy or behavior modification may be the missing piece for patients who seem to be dependent on the drugs to function.

stem cell lines faked

So the word is finally out that the famous korean stem cell lines were definitely faked . There have been various reactions to this news, from sadness and outrage amongst scientists, to glee amongst pro-lifers to gloating amongst natural health advocates who insist there is no value in western medicine and never will be. Scientists are reasonable in their upset. While some might say that much medical research is faked or fraudulent or doctored (and there is some credence to this), it seems the perpetrators are always caught when this is the case. Drugs are withdrawn, articles are retracted, etc. However other research is eventually reproduced and verified over and over again, thus truly giving it validation. This is the great power of science over dogma. It has self-correcting nature. While pro-life detractors make outrageous lies, as usual, such as claiming that this is clear proof that stem cell therapy will never work and thus money should be directed elsewhere, this couldn't be further from the truth. First of all, the deplorable Dr. Hwang was not the first person to successfully clone embryonic stem cells. He was just the first to claim to be able to do it easily and cheaply. So the ability to do this is not in dispute, just the method of the doctor in question. This is a major setback since the current method is so expensive and difficult that it cannot be the basis for any widespread research, much less therapy. But just as recent advances in nanotechnology may soon result in solar power being produced as cheap as fossil fuel energy after years of naysaying, the jury is most definitely still out on whether affordable viable stem cell therapy will be achieved. And all bets amongst scientists say it will, just more like in 2015 than 2006.

In actuality, the debacle in Korea tells us something completely different. It tells us that such research needs to be performed in the light of day in western companies with proper peer review and under strict ethical guidelines. It also tells us that money actually needs to be spent on this in the US. Contrary to pro-life assertions, this has not been a money drain. Money has not been available for creating new stem cell lines in almost six years. In fact, animal research has shown great promise, as I have documented in this blog from time to time. So, the only reasonable conclusion is that the timeline of advances in this area is not so accelerated as some have predicted. Folks like Ray Kurzweil, whom I have lauded in these columns before really need to be taken with a grain of salt when they opine about biotechnology. While I still think (and many would agree) that Kurzweil is a computer genious and his predictions about nanotechnology advances have credence, his writings on biotech and preventive use of supplements are wild-eyed to say the least. I should have been more suspicious of anyone who takes 150 supplements a day, since this is an area where I certainly know the research to be quite weak.

Which brings me to the most significant conclusion of all on this matter. Authoritarian and quasi-authoritarian, highly nationalistic countries like China and Korea cannot be trusted when it comes to medical research. It is just too easy to fake and the lack of peer review or other mechanisms of correction makes it too easy for erroneous data to persist and circulate. There is great incentive to lie in both these countries in order to advance one's career. While this is also true in the US, the relative transparency of our systems results in much less outright fraud and constant correction. Groups like Public Citizen regularly reveal the stark truth on matters of bad research, public hype and outright deception in the areas of both natural and conventional medicine. So, for the natural healthcare zealots who mistake this horrible mess for another feather in their caps, think again. Especially those who regularly point to research on the supposed efficacy of Chinese herbs in myriad diseases. There is great incentive for researchers in this area to lie to advance their fortunes, just as well. Pretty much all of the research suffers from serious flaws, such as small samples, no controls, no objective measures of success, etc. Be clear, whatever the current situation tells us about the state of biomedical research, there is still far more strong data coming out in the just the past year on stem cell therapy than in the past 50 years of research on Chinese herbs. I have written it many times (and have thus been ostracized by the zealots who were my former colleagues for this), Chinese herbs have not been proven to do anything but relieve symptoms and may perhaps have the risk of unknown interactions or long term side effects. The sword most definitely swings both ways.

The stem cell plot thickens

Korean researcher denies allegations that his research was faked and vows to prove it. He claims some of the cell lines he created may have been sabotaged. Anne Leonard over at Stem Cell Research Progress Blog thinks this all going to end badly. I remain optimistic. Hwang is standing firm and it makes no sense to take this stance if he is lying because then his career will most certainly be over. We shall soon know.

Korean Stem cell research was faked

It appears now that the much touted Korean Stem cell research was faked. Thus, the supposed advances to follow will not be forthcoming either. A sad day for science and a major blow to those (including myself) who thought this was profound evidence of the accelerating state of biotechnology. This lends credence to John Smart's contention that predictions for biotech are overstated. It also blows a major hole in Ray Kurzweil's bridge to a bridge theories. Without the bridge of biotechnology, folks like Kurzweil won't live long enough to see the advances in nanomedicine that might greatly extend lifespan. Nanomedicine has been predicted by all futurists to be much further down the road than the predicted advances in biotech. Yet at the same time, there is more acceptance of the likely successes in this area than there is for biotech. However if premier futurists were wrong about biotech.... Oh well. Back to the drawing board.

Latest news on stem cells and vision restoration

Here's a link to an informative blog. This topic involved stem cell transplants that resulted in a partial cure of blindness.

Drinking may be just plain bad for you

Bad news for those who thought they had license to drink a glass or two every day. It won't hurt your heart, but it will otherwise damage your health and shorten your life. Very heavy drinking does protect the heart, but at great expense to the liver. A drink or two a week is fine, though. Next thing you know tea will turn out to be bad news as well. Lets hope not. It's the only vice I have left!!